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1.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases ; 82(Suppl 1):543-544, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20245440

ABSTRACT

BackgroundThe presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) has been observed in patients with COVID-19 (1,2), suggesting that they may be associated with deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or stroke in severe cases (3). Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a systemic autoimmune disorder and the most common form of acquired thrombophilia globally. At least one clinical criterion, vascular thrombosis (arterial, venous or microthrombosis) or pregnancy morbidity and at least one laboratory criterion- positive aPL two times at least 12 weeks apart: lupus anticoagulant (LA), anticardiolipin (aCL), anti-β2-glycoprotein 1 (anti-β2GPI) antibody, have to be met for international APS classification criteria(4). Several reports also associate anti-phosphatidylserine/prothrombin antibodies (aPS/PT) with APS.ObjectivesTo combine clinical data on arterial/venous thrombosis and pregnancy complications before and during hospitalisation with aPL laboratory findings at 4 time points (hospital admission, worsening of COVID-19, hospital discharge, and follow-up) in patients with the most severe forms of COVID-19 infection.MethodsPatients with COVID-19 pneumonia were consequetively enrolled, as they were admitted to the General hospital Pancevo. Exclusion criteria were previous diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic disease and diagnosis of APS. Clinical data were obtained from the medical records. Laboratory results, including LA, aCL, anti-β2GPI, and aPS/PT antibodies were taken at hospital admission, worsening (defined as cytokine storm, connection of the patient to the respirator, use of the anti-IL-6 drug- Tocilizumab), at hospital discharge and at 3-months follow-up and sent to University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia for analysis. Statistics was performed by using SPSS 21.Results111 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were recruited;7 patients died during hospitalisation (none were aPL-positive on admission and at the time of worsening), 3 due to pulmonary artery embolism. All patients were treated according to a predefined protocol which included antibiotics, corticosteroids, anticoagulation therapy and specific comorbidity drugs;patients with hypoxia were supported with oxygen. During hospitalisation, pulmonary artery thrombosis occurred in 5 patients, one was aPL-positive at all time points (was diagnosed with APS), others were negative. In addition, 9/101 patients had a history of thrombosis (5 arterial thrombosis (coronary and cerebral arteries), none of whom was aPL-positive on admission and at follow-up, and 4 venous thrombosis, one of which was aPL-positive at all time points and received an APS diagnosis). Among 9/101 patients with a history of thrombosis, 55.6% were transiently positive at the time of discharge, compared to patients without prior thrombosis, in whom 26.1% were transiently positive at the hospital release (p=0.074). Two patients had a history of pregnancy complications (both had miscarriage after 10th week of gestation), but did not have aPL positivity at any time point.ConclusionAlthough aPL was expected to be associated with vascular disease in the most severe forms of COVID-19, all patients that have died in our cohort were aPL negative. At hospital discharge, 56% of patients with a history of arterial or venous thrombosis had positive aPL that became negative at the 3-months follow-up (were transienlty positive), which should be considered when prescribing therapy after hospitalisation.References[1]Trahtemberg U, Rottapel R, Dos Santos CC, et al. Anticardiolipin and other antiphospholipid antibodies in critically ill COVID-19 positive and negative patients. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2021;80:1236-1240.[2]Stelzer M, Henes J, Saur S. The Role of Antiphospholipid Antibodies in COVID-19. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2021;23(9):72-4.[3]Xie Y, Wang X, Yang P, Zhang S. COVID-19 complicated by acute pulmonary embolism. Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging 2020: 2: e200067.[4]Miyakis S, Lockshin MD, Atsumi T, Branch DW, Brey RL, et al. J.Thromb.Haemost. 2006;4: 295-306.Acknowledgements:NIL.Disclosure of nterestsNone Declared.

2.
Water ; 15(11):2132, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20245287

ABSTRACT

Wastewater surveillance has been widely used to track the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in communities. Although some studies have investigated the decay of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater, understanding about its fate during wastewater transport in real sewers is still limited. This study aims to assess the impact of sewer biofilms on the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration in naturally contaminated real wastewater (raw influent wastewater without extra SARS-CoV-2 virus/gene seeding) using a simulated laboratory-scale sewer system. The results indicated that, with the sewer biofilms, a 90% concentration reduction of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA was observed within 2 h both in wastewater of gravity (GS, gravity-driven sewers) and rising main (RM, pressurized sewers) sewer reactors. In contrast, the 90% reduction time was 8–26 h in control reactors without biofilms. The concentration reduction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was significantly more in the presence of sewer biofilms. In addition, an accumulation of c.a. 260 and 110 genome copies/cm2 of the SARS-CoV-2 E gene was observed in the sewer biofilm samples from RM and GS reactors within 12 h, respectively. These results confirmed that the in-sewer concentration reduction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was likely caused by the partition to sewer biofilms. The need to investigate the in-sewer dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, such as the variation of RNA concentration in influent wastewater caused by biofilm attachment and detachment, was highlighted by the significantly enhanced reduction rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater of sewer biofilm reactors and the accumulation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in sewer biofilms. Further research should be conducted to investigate the in-sewer transportation of SARS-CoV-2 and their RNA and evaluate the role of sewer biofilms in leading to underestimates of COVID-19 prevalence in communities.

3.
BMJ : British Medical Journal (Online) ; 369, 2020.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20244732

ABSTRACT

A cross party group of MPs has said that Public Health England's failure to publish the evidence behind its decision to discontinue community testing at the start of the covid-19 outbreak is "unacceptable.” In a 19 page letter to the prime minister, the Science and Technology Committee called for publication of the evidence base and rationale informing Public Health England's decision to concentrate testing for covid-19 in a limited number of its own laboratories and to expand testing capacity gradually, rather than surging capacity through a large number of available laboratories in research institutes, universities, and the public and private sectors.1 This had led to the government announcing on 12 March that testing would stop in the community and would occur principally within hospitals—a decision that was "one of the most consequential made during [the] crisis,” MPs said in the letter. The committee chair, Greg Clark, said, "Greater transparency around scientific advice;putting capacity in place in advance of need, such as in testing and vaccines;collecting more data earlier;and learning from other countries' approaches are some of the early lessons of this pandemic that are relevant to further decisions that will need to be taken during the weeks and months ahead.”

4.
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe ; 33(9):16-16,18, 2021.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20243757

ABSTRACT

According to expert opinion, the incorporation of effective adjuvants that can trigger both mucosal and systemic immune responses are necessary for noninvasive vaccine delivery, and a more extensive understanding of mucosal immunity is required (4). To overcome these potential issues, it has been suggested by some experts that gelling agents, such as polymers, included in the formulation could increase the residence time of the vaccine in the nasal passage (5). Another potential intranasal candidate from Altimmune is no longer in development as a result of inadequate immune response in healthy volunteers (8).

5.
Journal of Modelling in Management ; 18(4):1064-1092, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20243713

ABSTRACT

PurposeThe present situation of COVID-19 pandemic has put the health-care systems under tremendous stress and stringent tests for their ability to offer expected quality of health-care services, as it decides the sustainability and growth of health-care service providers. This study aims to deliver a quantitative framework for service quality assessment in the health-care industry by classifying the health-care service quality parameters into four balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives.Design/methodology/approachTo determine the service quality for the Indian health-care system, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and analytical network process are integrated in a fuzzy environment to contemplate the interaction among BSC perspectives and respective performance measures.FindingsThe results indicate "internal processes” perspective assumes the key role within BSC perspectives, while performance measures "nursing staff turnover” and "staff training” play the key roles. The results also signify that "patient satisfaction” is the most vital issue and can be strongly influenced by measures belonging to the "learning and growth” perspective. In "learning and growth” perspective, "staff training” is the most decisive criteria, very highly influencing "patient satisfaction”, highly influencing "profitability,” "change of cost per patient (both in and out patients)” and "outpatient waiting time” while moderately influencing "staff satisfaction,” "bed occupancy” and "nursing staff turnover”. Moreover, "staff training” criteria have a positive influence on "nursing staff turnover.”Originality/valueThe contributions of this study are in two folds in the domain of quantification of service quality for the health-care system. First, it delivers an assessment framework for Indian health-care service quality. Second, it demonstrates an application of the framework for a case situation and validates the proposed framework.

6.
LC GC North America ; 38(6):320-324, 2020.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20243314

ABSTRACT

Aside from evaporation of water from buffer solutions, precipitation of buffer salts can also easily occur when a buffer solution comes into contact with a pure organic solvent. [...]one should avoid- at all costs-a situation where a LC system component containing an aqueous buffer is flushed immediately with a pure organic solvent. Solvents and Buffers Figure 1 shows a picture of a buffer bottle I observed in an LC laboratory about a year ago. Many of the aqueous buffer solutions used in LC (and even high-performance liquid chromatography [HPLC] grade water, if given enough time and exposure to aboratory dust) are environments quite favorable to microbes, particularly those in the middle of the pH range.

7.
American Journal of Clinical Pathology, suppl 1 ; 158, 2022.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20243084

ABSTRACT

Whole-slide images (WSI) are the basis for the application of artificial intelligence/machine learning and other informatics methods to histological diagnosis and will further blur the line separating anatomic and clinical pathology. FDA classified WSI systems for primary diagnosis as class III (highest risk) medical devices until 2017. This discouraged anatomic pathology laboratories at risk-averse domestic institutions like mine from investing in these digital pathology (DP) platforms. In 2017, FDA downgraded WSI to class II (moderate risk) when they de-novo approved a system marketed by Philips. We were not interested in that system at my institution, but the downgrade caused us to reset our perception of the risk of validating a RUO system for primary diagnosis. Cost remained a barrier. In April 2020, FDA issued temporary guidance stating they would not enforce premarket approval of WSI systems to facilitate pathologists working remotely during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The guidance included a statement that "laboratories and hospitals consider performing a validation study.” In January 2021, FDA proposed making the temporary non-enforcement guidance permanent. So, in a little more than three years, WSI for primary diagnosis had gone from class III to exempted from pre-market approval! This nicely aligned the approval framework for WSI with the approval framework for our conventional optical microscopes, which are statutorily exempted from approval, and further reset our perception of risk. In April 2021, FDA withdrew the proposal to make non-enforcement permanent, but the temporary non-enforcement guidance is still in effect at the time of writing. Amid all this FDA activity, the College of American Pathologists updated and reissued their consensus guidelines for validating WSI systems for diagnostic purposes in March 2021. The narrative mentions the FDA's recent approval of a few WSI systems and anticipates more, but the expert panel recommendations do not include any related to the approval status of systems. The reissue of this document reminded us that, as clinical laboratorians, we are capable of safely validating WSI as a laboratory-developed test and are supported in doing so by consensus guidelines from one of our leading professional organizations. In early 2021 we committed to funding a DP initiative to make WSI part of our routine histological process for 10% of our anatomic pathology cases. The initial capital investment is $1.5M. When realized, the microscope slides for designated pathology services will be transported directly from the cover slipper to a slide scanner and electronically distributed to pathologists using a clinical-grade image management system that we share with our radiology department. We made the decision to fund this in the context of the regulatory (decreased perception of risk), sociological (demand for remote telepathology), and technological (availability of scalable WSI systems) changes that occurred during the pandemic.

8.
2023 15th International Conference on Computer and Automation Engineering, ICCAE 2023 ; : 102-108, 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20241629

ABSTRACT

Engineering programs emphasize students career advancement by ensuring that engineering students gain technical and professional capabilities during their four-year study. In a traditional engineering laboratory, students "learn by doing", and laboratory equipment facilitates their discipline-specific knowledge acquisition. Unfortunately, there were significant educational uncertainties, such as COVID-19, which halted laboratory activities for an extended period, causing challenges for students to perform and obtain practical experiments on campus. To overcome these challenges, this research proposes and develops an Artificial Intelligence-based smart tele-assisting technology application to digitalize first-year engineering students practical experience by incorporating Augmented Reality (AR) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms using the HoloLens 2. This application improves virtual procedural demonstrations and assists first-year engineering students in conducting practical activities remotely. This research also applies various machine learning algorithms to identify and classify different images of electronic components and detect the positions of each component on the breadboard (using the HoloLens 2). Based on a comparative analysis of machine learning algorithms, a hybrid CNN-SVM (Convolutional Neural Network - Support Vector Machine) model is developed and is observed that a hybrid model provides the highest average prediction accuracy compared to other machine learning algorithms. With the help of AR (HoloLens 2) and the hybrid CNN-SVM model, this research allows students to reduce component placement errors on a breadboard and increases students competencies, decision-making abilities, and technical skills to conduct simple laboratory practices remotely. © 2023 IEEE.

9.
Applied Clinical Trials ; 29(10):5, 2020.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20240679

ABSTRACT

[...]just after the autumn equinox, Europe is still a long way from finding vaccines to fight back-as a hearing in the European Parliament on Sept. 23 confirmed. Members of European Parliament (MEPs) wanted to make sure that drug firms were not being given a blank check from public funds, while charging what they wanted for their products and dodging responsibility for any side effects. [...]she said, there are issues of competition that must be respected until all the contracts are complete. Since the European Commission has already indicated that prices will be in the range of €5 to €15 (about $6 to $18 USD) a dose, that is sufficient for the moment, she added, and "it is right" that the exact prices are not yet available.

10.
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe ; 35(4):32-33, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20240188

ABSTRACT

Contract testing services demonstrate a major increase in the speed and efficiency of testing using new testing methods and technologies. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, providers offering contract testing services have seen various changes and improvements to everyday processes. According to Lara Silverman, PhD, founder and principal consultant at LIS BioConsulting, it became increasingly crucial for contract testing labs to provide seamless services to clients and communicate any issues in a quick, efficient fashion. [...]corresponding services that are contracted with recognized service organizations are needed to solve technically demanding tasks.

11.
American Journal of Clinical Pathology, suppl 1 ; 158, 2022.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20239388

ABSTRACT

Introduction/Objective COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the healthcare and economy on a global scale. It is widely recognized that mass testing is an efficient way to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as aid in the development of informed policies for disease management. Here we optimized two different protocols for qRT- PCR with direct samples and systematically compared them with the laboratory standard qRT-PCR detection assay. Methods/Case Report RNA samples from 270 subjects collected in two phases at 2020-2021. The groups consisted from positive (n = 240) and negative (n = 30) samples. We compared the performance of qRT-PCR in direct heat- inactivated (95 °C for 5 min, H), heat-inactivated and pelleted (95 °C for 5 min and centrifuged for 10 min at 12,000 g, HC) against standard laboratory protocol for SARS-CoV-2 qRT-PCR (targeting ORF1ab and N genes). Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity for PCR assays were calculated using caret and epiR packages available in the R software environment for statistical computing. The Wilcoxon matched rank test was used to compare differences in Ct values. Results (if a Case Study enter NA) Our study suggests that HC samples show higher accuracy for SARS-CoV-2 detection PCR assay compared to direct H (89 % (95 % CI: 80–95 %) vs 83 % (95 % CI: 74–91 %) of the detection in RNA). The median ΔCt was lower by 1.55 and 2.29 cycles (Wilcoxon signed-rank test p = 0.0018 and < 0.0001 for ORF1ab and N genes, accordingly) in HC samples compared to H samples. Conclusion Our results suggest that purified RNA provides more accurate results;heat-inactivated and pelleted sample testing with qRT-PCR showed a slight drop in accuracy. However, the latter could also help to significantly increase testing capacity. Switching to the direct sample testing is justified if the number of tests is doubled at least.

12.
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe ; 34(4):10-13, 2022.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20239319

ABSTRACT

The success of the cooperation between government and the private sector to rapidly develop and build capacity for vaccines and treatments to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of what is possible, in the normally slow-acting and risk-averse pharmaceutical sector, say industry experts. Reducing barriers to CM One positive sign is greater acceptance of public-private partnerships by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Congress, due to the successes demonstrated during the pandemic response, said Jennifer Luray, vice-president of strategy and communications at ResearchlAmerica, during a panel discussion hosted by the US Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) (2). USP can help fill the gap that exists in access to knowledge, experience, and laboratory capabilities for PAT model development and process development, adds De Belder. " "Some PAT systems are more suited to a development environment, where the goal is to gain process understanding and knowledge about the product, but those systems may not be robust enough for routine deployment on a commercial process," adds Connelly.

13.
2022 IEEE 14th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management, HNICEM 2022 ; 2022.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20239036

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a remote access control experiment for students who can't go to the campus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper utilizes the SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) using LabView with the Internet of things technology to control the laboratory remotely in real-time. Remote access experiments of a Linear actuator, PID algorithm, Dynamics and Control of Second-order system response, and survey questionnaires were applied and used as an example to show how effective the research study is. The safety of the SCADA system was also considered by using the Virtual Private Network as the primary connection between the student and the server. The remote access laboratory will give a solution to the current problem of the academe for not providing a real-time laboratory equipment experiment. © 2022 IEEE.

14.
American Journal of Clinical Pathology, suppl 1 ; 158:S140-S141, 2022.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20238466

ABSTRACT

Introduction/Objective The public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the crucial role of medical laboratory professionals and scientists in molecular diagnostics laboratories to ensure success in infection control strategies. The demand for laboratory testing using nucleic acid amplification tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA imposed strains in laboratory supplies. Here, we explored an alternative cost-effective solution that will simplify the pre-PCR steps by using a simple heating method to release viral RNA. Methods/Case Report Samples tested using the reference automated extraction method were used:100 samples identified as positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA and 500 samples tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA were used for the study and sorted with equal distribution according to Ct values of (a) <20, (b) 20–30, and (c) >30.100 ul from swab preserved in Universal Transport Medium was treated with 30 μg of proteinase K, and another set was tested without proteinase K pre-treatment. All samples with or without proteinase K were diluted to minimize PCR inhibitors. The thermal shock protocol was set at (98°C, 5 minutes;4°C, 2 minutes) and screened for purity. Performance and method verification studies were performed. Internal extraction, positive template, and no template controls were markers used for testing quality. The experimental study was performed by qualified testing personnel and all under the same experimental conditions. Results (if a Case Study enter NA) The Ct values from the thermal shock RNA release were compared to the automated extraction method and statistically analyzed.The criteria for acceptability for validation of this new RNA extraction proceeding were set to 100% concordance compared to the commercial kit using an automated extraction. PCR efficiency was at 98% and a slope of -3.3. Within run precision of 2% and limits of detection from 200 to 20,000 copies/uL The method 100% (50/50) concordance on samples previously identified as negative by automated methods and identified 86% (86/100) with a mean difference of 3 Ct. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the thermal shock treatment of nasopharyngeal swabs in viral transport media can successfully extract viral nucleic acid for nucleic acid amplification and is a reasonable alternative for chemical extraction methods when molecular diagnostic laboratories persistently encounter supply chain issues.

15.
2023 25th International Conference on Digital Signal Processing and its Applications, DSPA 2023 ; 2023.
Article in English | Scopus | ID: covidwho-20237784

ABSTRACT

The study is devoted to a comparative analysis and retrospective evaluation of laboratory and instrumental data with the severity of lung tissue damage in COVID-19 of patients with COVID-19. An improvement was made in the methodology for interpreting and analyzing dynamic changes associated with COVID-19 on CT images of the lungs. The technique includes the following steps: pre-processing, segmentation with color coding, calculation and evaluation of signs to highlight areas with probable pathology (including combined evaluation of signs). Analysis and interpretation is carried out on the emerging database of patients. At the same time the following indicators are distinguished: the results of the analysis of CT images of the lungs in dynamics;the results of the analysis of clinical and laboratory data (severity course of the disease, temperature, saturation, etc.). The results of laboratory studies are analyzed with an emphasis on the values of the main indicator - interleukin-6. This indicator is a marker of significant and serious changes characterizing the severity of the patient's condition. © 2023 IEEE.

16.
LC GC North America ; 39(7):307, 2021.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20236722

ABSTRACT

Early on, whispers of a potentially engineered virus grew and fueled speculation that China was behind the pandemic-speculation so pervasive that, in February 2020, a group of 27 public health scientists published a letter in The Lancet disputing the laboratory leak theory, and announcing their support of their counterparts in China-the scientists, public health officials, and medical professionals-combating the pandemic. Robert Malone, MD, the inventor of the mRNA technology, has expressed strong concern over the risk-benefit analysis of vaccinating young adults, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has met to discuss cases of myocarditis or pericarditis in people aged 30 and younger who have received an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine. What we do know for certain is that the incredible strength and collaboration of the scientific community have allowed us to regain some semblance of normalcy.

17.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases ; 82(Suppl 1):1904-1905, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20235983

ABSTRACT

BackgroundSince the end of 2019, physicians became more and more familiar with SARS-CoV-2 infection and the variety of forms in which it may present and evolve. There have been a lot of studies trying to understand and predict why some patients develop a dysregulation of the immune response, with an exaggerated release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, called cytokine storm (1–4). There is scarce evidence in Romania regarding this aspect.ObjectivesThis study aims to verify the correlation between some laboratory parameters and the development of cytokine storm in SARS-CoV-2 infection in a cohort of over 200 patients admitted in a tertiary hospital from Romania, hoping that early identification of these risk factors of progression to a severe form of the disease can bring considerable benefit to patient care.MethodsThis is an analytical, observational, case-control study which includes 219 patients (all COVID-19 hospitalized patients on the Internal Medicine 3 department of Colentina Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, from 01 March 2020 to 1 April 2021). A series of data were collected, the laboratory parameters being the most important, including: albumin, lymphocyte (percentage), neutrophil (absolute value), aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, D-dimers, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), anionic gap, chloremia, potassium and the BUN:creatinine ratio (BUN - blood urea nitrogen). The laboratory parameters used for the statistical analysis represent the average values of the first 7 days of hospitalization for those who did not develop cytokine storm, respectively until the day of its development, for the others. Patients were classified into these groups, those who developed cytokine storm, respectively those who did not have this complication taking into account the clinical and paraclinical criteria (impairment of respiratory function, elevations of certain markers 2-3 times above the upper limit of normal, those who died as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection). Then Binary Univariate Logistic Regression was applied in order to verify the individual impact of every laboratory parameter on cytokine storm development. Furthermore, all laboratory parameters were subsequently included in the multivariate analysis, using the backward selection technique to achieve a model as predictive as possible.ResultsWe mention that the analysis of demographic data was previously performed, showing no statistically significant relationship between patient gender, age or comorbidities (history of neoplasm, lung diseases, cardiac pathology, obesity, type II diabetes and hypertension) and their evolution to cytokine storm. After performing binary univariate logistic regression we concluded that 8 of the 13 laboratory analyzes have had a significant change between groups (ferritin, PCR, albumin, Lymphocyte, Neutrophils, TGO, LDH, BUN:creatinine ratio). Only 150 patients were then included in the multivariate analysis. After the analysis, some of the variables lost their statistical significance, the final model including C-reactive protein, neutrophilia, LDH, ferritin and the BUN:creatinine ratio. This model correctly predicts the development of cytokine storm in 88% of cases.ConclusionHigh C-reactive protein, neutrophilia, LDH, ferritin and the BUN:creatinine ratio are risk factors for cytokine storm development and should be monitored in all COVID-19 patients in order to predict their evolution.References[1]Pedersen SF et all. SARS-CoV-2: A storm is raging[2]Mehta P et al. COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression[3]Hu B et al. The cytokine storm and COVID-19.[4]Caricchio R et al. Preliminary predictive criteria for COVID-19 cytokine stormAcknowledgements:NIL.Disclosure of InterestsNone Declared.

18.
Pharmaceutical Technology Europe ; 33(12):37-38,40, 2021.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20235750

ABSTRACT

[...]the sheer volume of developers working in the space across a range of modalities (including recombinant viral vectors, live attenuated vaccines, recombinant proteins, and nucleic acids), using different methods of data collection and evaluation, made comparison of immune responses to find the most effective candidates extremely challenging. [...]this includes an assay overview to ensure that everyone involved in the analyses is aligned with how each assay is being performed in the reference labs and understands the limitations of the assays. [...]a laboratory comparison assessment and an assay performance evaluation at the recipient labs were completed to ensure that the quality of the assays was not impacted by the transfer. Since the arrival of the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2019, the COVID-19 global landscape has continued to evolve with the emergence of new variants of concern.

19.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series ; 2511(1):012004, 2023.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20235210

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the procedure followed to conduct two various experiments as part of the ‘Mechanical Laboratory' course of the Mechanical Engineering department, at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, during the Covid-19 period. Adapting to the personal contact restrictions imposed by the health issue outbreak, a remote experimental method is proposed. In the first experiment, the students had to generate the operational map of a cooling computer fan while on the second one the characteristic parameters of a symmetric airfoil needed to be measured. Multifunctional control panel interfaces were introduced to the students. Through these applications, the student had the opportunity to run the experiments, assess the raw data, monitor all the necessary flow parameters and acquire the important variables. The students had to post-process the results and submit two reports, one for each experiment. This teaching method provided the students with the experience of real research project and guided them to use modern tools to enhance the quality of their future work. This publication focuses on the address of the challenges, arose during the automation of the experiments. The remote experimental sessions indicated some advantages in learning procedure which was also reflected on the assignment grades. The development of the procedure has been successfully implemented and tested over a couple of years while the quarantine measure have been in place. Furthermore, the experience gained will be used to implement modern communication protocols in the experimental set-ups.

20.
LC GC North America ; 38(10):562-563, 2020.
Article in English | ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-20234501

ABSTRACT

[...]we did, and we discussed digital transformation's evolution and how laboratories can benefit, too. Curtis: This is a term that's used in so many different contexts that it's important to step back and understand that it's not just about focusing on a micro-component of the work process in your laboratory, but about identifying and addressing a given process end to end. Specifically, you want to improve data capture throughout the entire process. [...]any type of digital transformation is about tackling the end-to-end process rather than any single system, which tends to be a very tactical approach. Digital transformation creates the opportunity to support remote teams and be much more flexible and effective with human capital.

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